Severe disruption on London Midland line due to broken down train and overhead wire damage

Picture via National Rail

Published:10:13Updated:11:54Tuesday 05 April 2016

There are severe disruption on London Midland trains today causing delays and cancellations.

Two separate incidents at Northampton and Coventry/Birmingham are causing long delays along the line.

There are cancellations to services at Northampton due to a broken down train at the station meaning that all lines are disrupted.

Train services running through this station may be cancelled or delayed.

There are also cancellations to services between Birmingham New Street and Coventry due to overhead power line damage.

he incident is affecting services between Birmingham New Street and London Euston via Coventry, Northampton and Milton Keynes.

The cause of the incident isn’t known but Network Rail engineers are on site repairing the damage. There is currently no estimate for when the railway will fully reopen.

A spokesman for London Midland said: “Earlier this morning significant damage was caused to the overhead lines between Birmingham International and Coventry, also damaging a train in the area. Network Rail are working to assess and repair the issue, but it is looking likely that this part of the network will not be able to reopen fully until mid-afternoon to enable full repairs to take place and for the train affected to be moved.

“Unfortunately, there is currently a separate incident at Northampton with a delayed freight train awaiting train crew. This freight train is blocking part of the access to the station, which a large number of London Midland train services start from, or have a change of train crew there.

“This will have further added to the disruption. London Midland are making every effort to operate as many services as possible, with alternative arrangements in the meantime.”

A spokesman for Network Rail said: “Our priority at this stage is to quickly and safely repair the damage so the railway can be reopened as soon as possible. Services are running but some have had to be cancelled and some are being diverted. We appreciate this is causing disruption to passengers but can assure them we are doing all we can to fix the issue. We are working closely with the affected train operators and our advice to passengers is to check before they travel and allow extra time to complete their journeys.”

Bus replacement services are in place and passengers can use London Midland tickets on Chiltern Railways, Virgin Trains and Cross Country between Birmingham and London.

For live updates follow @londonmidland on Twitter and visit www.londonmidland.com for further information.